It’s always great to get a peek behind the curtain, so to speak, to see what top young athletes do to better themselves.

On April 30, 2024, we did a story titled 2028 Player Spotlight: Why Top HOT 100 Candidate Tinley Goodson Is a Workout Warrior.

Two months later she was named as one of the Top 10 players in the 2028 Line Drive HOT 100 Player Rankings.

Here’s how her bio read at that time:

T-10—Tinley Goodson, IF, Team NC – Bowman
Tinley is a prolific player with a style and look that has Power 5 schools already interested. A 5-tool player, she can also deliver the metrics with a 72-mph exit velo, a 68-mph overhand velo and is a sub 2.9 runner with an IQ to play up the middle, both in the dirt and grass. Head Coach Brian Bowman says: “You combine ball skills with the multi-sport athlete that Tinley is and her future is bright. She is one of the rising stars of the 2028 class nationally.” She comes from an athletic family as her father, Todd, played Division I college baseball and was in the minor leagues while Tinley’s older brother, Jared, has won back to back Virginia State Wrestling titles his freshman and sophomore years in high school.

Now, in the fall of her freshman year, Tinley continues to work hard after a great summer that saw her bat .342 and hit .471 with runners in scoring position playing up against elite competitors two to three years older than her.

She recently joined the strong 16U Unity team coached by Dave Amsler and Josh Joshson and, ever hungry to get better, Tinley has hit college camps at schools like Virginia, Tennessee and LSU and works regularly with her trainer, Brady Barefoot, at Onelife Fitness in Newport News, Va. and with her hitting coach, Cam Byars at The Batter’s Box in Mechanicsville, Va.

“Tinley is a kid with all the tools on both sides of the ball and she has a great work ethic to match it!” Coach Byars says.

“She is a kid you can tell really enjoys the chase of becoming the best player she can be and if Tinley continues on the path she is on, which I fully expect, she’ll make some school very happy in the future!”

Back in the academic school year flow, she maintains a rigorous weekly workout schedule that has her hitting the gym six days a week:

• Mondays: Lifting and Drill work
• Tuesdays: Cage work
• Wednesdays: Lifting and Arm Care
• Thursdays: Field work
• Fridays: Speed and Agility and Long Toss
• Saturdays: Cage

Here’s a recent clip of the young athlete crushing the ball in cage work with her father, Todd Goodson, making she he’s securely behind the netting after each pitch!

So what drives Tinley, who also carries a 4.0 GPA in the classroom, to push herself so hard?

“I do this because I love the sport,” she says simply, “and I love the people softball has brought into my life and everything that goes along with it to succeed.”

“My teammates, coaches and parents drive me to be the best I can be, and—for them and myself—I also want to be the best I can be!”

— Brentt Eads/Line Drive Softball